There were sort of two cases being investigated in tonight’s episode of NCIS. The first was a hit-and-run case and the other was a murder that was, unbeknownst to NCIS, committed by the suspect in the hit-and-run and also the suspect’s alibi.

The problem was that the suspect, a guy named Dunne, obviously, didn’t want to tell NCIS that another murder was his alibi. So while his lawyer (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), a former FBI agent, could clear him in the hit-and-run, she also didn’t want him to get away on the other murder. (She was bound by attorney-client privilege and could not tell them the whole truth.) So she helped clue-in the team at NCIS that something wasn’t right in her client’s story.

Taking the attorney, named Carrie Clark, on her word, NCIS quietly dropped Dunne as a suspect (but kept him in custody so they could possibly have a chance to get evidence against him in the other crime) and set off to find the guy who was actually responsible for the hit-and-run crime. They did so fairly quickly. But in an instant, what we thought to be the secondary crime, became the case to solve. (I liked this switcheroo!)

By the end, Dunne was booked on murder AND conspiracy to commit murder – the latter related to yet another twist. It turns out that Dunne was part of a trio who all had murderous deeds that they needed carried out and they had agreed to swap deeds, in hopes that the murders wouldn’t be tied back to them. But those plans crumbled, obviously.

Much like the case-of-the-week, the personal arcs in this episode also had some twists.

While all this was going on, McGee noticed that Tony’s behavior was odd (well, more odd than usual). He was taking buses to get around and getting rides from mysterious people he declined to ID. We later found out that Tony had joined a men’s support group at a local church, and as a result, was changing his ways. “With the past year, I just wanted to shake some things up a bit,” he explained to slack-jawed McGee. (The ride he received was from a pastor at the church.)

Elsewhere, we got a sense that Gibbs was particularly concerned with protecting Carrie Clark from any harm as a result of her tipping off NCIS. (She could have been disbarred for her actions if caught.) While this move was not out of Gibbs’ nature – he always does the right thing – it made a little more sense at the end of the episode, when Clark found Gibbs at the diner and ended up joining him for dinner! Now, that’s what I call a twist. Go, Gibbs.

Burning questions: Do we hope Clark sticks around to be courted by Gibbs? And what do we think of the Tony reveal – shockingly out of character or shockingly healthy of him?

Best quotes:

Tony: Told you the husband was a handbag.
Ducky: A handbag?
Gibbs: Something useless you carry on your arm.